The latest trends in international filmmaking: our competition programmes present recent short films from around the world. The best works will be honoured with prizes at the Award Ceremony on Sunday.
Discover national short filmmaking in the Swiss Competition. We also invite audiences to join us for the Award Ceremony on Sunday – watch live as the jury honours the best films of this year’s festival edition.
With the Sparks programmes, we hope to spark a passion for the medium of short film. Featuring highlights from this year’s competition submissions, the selection offers an excellent introduction to the world of shorts, showcasing a diverse film culture beyond the usual mainstream and YouTube videos.
Kurzfilmtage’s annual Swiss Film School Day is a showcase of Switzerland’s five major undergraduate degree programmes. Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL), the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), and the Lucerne School of Art and Design (Video/Animation) present a selection of their recent short films. The jury of the Swiss Competition gives feedback to the students and awards the prize for the Best Swiss School Film. Admission to the Swiss Film School Day is free – a great opportunity to get a first glimpse of Kurzfilmtage!
Canada is an impossibly vast and wildly diverse country. Accordingly, Canadian cinema is highly eclectic, influenced by language, geography, and various cultural communities. The eight curated programmes presented here showcase the complexity of this cinema as well as its evolution through history.
In the early 1990s, Nigerian cinema experienced its first major commercial success. Themes of love, avarice, spirituality, and redemption became the backbone of Nigerian cinematic storytelling, resonating with audiences across the country and continent. Today, young filmmakers infuse some irreverence into those themes, often using short films as the canvas for their exploration. These shorts bear witness to the new generation’s unique ambition and creativity, and they represent a hyper-conscious departure from mainstream Nollywood.
Willy Hans has developed a unique style characterized by his love of experimentation and a talent for blending genres. His films surprise viewers with unexpected twists and intriguing image compositions. In this Focus on Willy Hans, we present his own works as well as films created by the collective consisting of Paul Spengemann, Jan Eichberg, Steffen Goldkamp, and Hans.
Kurzfilmtage’s Industry Events consist of the Swiss Film School Day, the Industry Lab, and the Creators’ Room. They offer film professionals an opportunity for networking and for discussing current issues, creative methods, and aesthetic trends.
Although there is some controversy concerning the exact year Nigerian cinema was born, there isn’t a lot of debate about the year of its first major commercial success. The year was 1992, and the film was «Living in Bondage». The film’s themes – love, avarice, malevolent spirituality, Christian redemption – were all part of the Nigerian lexicon and would come to define much of what was produced in that decade. They remain familiar today: The media still report on young people dabbling in the diabolic for wealth; things pertaining to the spiritual still command fear and worship.
But if both fear and worship were the principal dictators of how Nigerian cinema pursued stories about spirituality, a useful word for today’s approach is irreverence, which, nevertheless, commingles with an ever-present engagement. Younger filmmakers may query the mystical beliefs of their cinematic forebears and their own parents, but they are not quite ready to dismiss or ignore their cultural pervasiveness. Whatever they might think of spirituality, they agree it is part of their inheritance.
Michael Omonua’s «Rehearsal» offers an irreverent look at that inheritance. The film follows a group of young people practising reactions to a faux spirit-filled pastor. It isn’t the type of story mainstream filmmakers of the 1990s would have told. Its methods are just as different. There is the naturalistic acting, a departure from the melodrama typical of mainstream Nollywood. There is the oblique criticism of a religion that, offscreen, commands ardent discipleship in a poor country, even as its leaders have erected massive edifices the unbelieving observer might call capitalist cathedrals.
«Rehearsal» is among the shorts by the Surreal 16, a filmmaking trio whose disavowal of how-it-is-and-was-done has made them the face of non-mainstream Nigerian cinema success. The group’s three-part «Juju Stories» addresses some of the most common superstitions of their 1990s childhood. All three stories tell of young Nigerians dealing with the unpredictable consequences of over-familiarizing themselves with the mystical.
Other filmmakers with projects outside the mainstream include Femi Johnson and Ayo Lawson, the duo behind «Nightmare on Broadstreet», in which a group of friends is traumatized – to death – at a popular outdoor venue on Lagos Island.
While that film wears its western influence in its title, others are more subtle in that respect. Sonia Irabor and Lakin Ogunbanwo, who have both earned degrees in the west, make films in the liminal spaces between cinema and art projects. Walé Oyéjidé, in turn, claims both Nigerian and US culture as formative influences.
For these filmmakers, some of whom have also made features, short films present an opportunity to try outré ideas away from a mainstream superstructure that may not be welcoming. This is arguably evidence of an ambition different from that of their 1990s forebears as well as a sign of a bravery. It takes a level of audacity – and maybe ignorance – to work outside a well-known space like Nollywood.
That bravery provides its own benefits. For example, Olive Nwosu’s «Egúngún (Masquerade)» tells a quasi-queer tale and may never find wide release in Nigeria for that reason. Knowing that beforehand gives a level of freedom to the filmmaker. Like for Nwosu, who doesn’t live in Nigeria, home is something to break away from for many young filmmakers. Today, some consider Nollywood a genre and insist that they do not make films in that mould. While the cinema of the 1990s catered to a local audience, today’s filmmakers have at least one eye on the west. While stories from the past were often set in villages, many young directors are concerned with their cities.
One final difference involves the pipeline for newcomers. Informal apprenticeships and theatre departments once fed Nigerian cinema; today, foreign film schools have become a major source of behind-the-camera talent and training. And when foreign tutelage isn't accessible, watching and imbibing doctrines from western films will do.
And yet, the commercial and cultural dominance of 1990s Nigerian cinema has left a lingering aesthetic mark. In Immaculata Abba’s documentary «You Matter to Me», the old Nollywood aesthetic shows up in the film’s texture and its setting in a village in Eastern Nigeria. The short also discusses family, one of the main concerns of traditional Nollywood.
Eastern Nigeria is also the setting for Dika Ofoma’s «A Quiet Monday». It is the one short film in the selection to address a contentious political issue that is still making headlines, even if the problem’s origin is rooted in the 1960s. In the film, a young tailor promises to deliver on a Monday but is intercepted on her way to a client by two young men, both members of an armed group agitating for the release of their imprisoned leader. Violence ensues. Although the central characters in «A Quiet Monday» are fictional, the narrative’s political atmosphere is all too real for Eastern Nigeria’s residents. Ofoma’s tale relates what tragedies are possible when supposedly remote political issues turn up in intimate settings.
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur is Switzerland’s major short film festival. For six days every November, we transform the city into a dynamic short film hub.
Kurzfilmtage offers discoveries for everyone: our thoughtfully compiled thematic programmes address current events or topics that our curators are passionate about. The competition programmes showcase the latest filmmaking from around the globe, while installations, performances, and other specials highlight the diversity of audiovisual forms. And a programme of special events including concerts, readings, and more enhance the festival experience.
A short film is not just a shorter film. Shorts are a distinct art form, which we showcase at our annual festival.
Short films come in all shapes and genres, and how long – or short – they are, varies quite a bit. Simpler production processes allow filmmakers to capture the zeitgeist and quickly respond to trends. Shorts can be entertaining or surprising, they can analyse society, take a political stance, or offer glimpses of worlds unknown to us.
We compile our short films into thematic programmes or specific sections, such as our competitions, paying close attention to the selection and sequence of films in each programme. All you need to enjoy short films is an open mind for new discoveries and surprises.
Competitions
Recent short films from around the world. The best shorts will be presented with awards on Sunday evening.
Hors Concours
Recent short films from Zurich, Switzerland, and around the world screened out of competition.
Main Focus
Films that explore a region, a social phenomenon, or an artistic trend.
Country in Focus
The cinema of a country from contemporary and historical perspectives.
Person in Focus
A spotlight on the work of a filmmaker.
Special Programmes
Short film programmes dedicated to topics that our curators are passionate about – or that are simply fun.
Family Programmes
Short film fun for young viewers aged 6+ and for the whole family.
Expanded Cinema
Installations, performances, and exhibitions present the medium of film in unfamiliar forms.
Special Events
Concerts, parties, readings, and many other events enhance the festival experience.
Talks & Panels
Moderated talks and panels after the screenings offer additional context and insight into films and themes.
Industry Events
A wide range of educational events and networking opportunities.
